Ecstatic Dance and Freedom

I see a lot of dance facilitators use language that they don’t really mean when describing or promoting their dances. They say to “be yourself”, that you have “full freedom of expression”, or that you can “move how you wish”. And yet, when I tell them how I want to dance, they almost always say no, that I can’t do that. Do they not know what “full freedom of expression” really means. I’ve been a professional nude model for 40 years. I’ve visited over 15 naturist resorts and several nude beaches. I’ve been nude at several large public events. I am a nudist.

I’ve been to a few ecstatic dances, and I’ve never felt like my full self. Occasionally, I have taken off my shirt while dancing and loved the sensation of the air on my skin, and I have always wished that I could feel that on all of my skin. But when I’ve asked for permission to do this, the facilitators treat me like I’m insane. Society has created such a dependence on clothing, keeping our natural bodies covered, that going against that is seen as the ultimate taboo. And yet, they keep on insisting that dancers are free to express themselves. No, we are not. We are not free. If “freedom” is curated, controlled, and denied, then it’s not freedom. And ecstatic dances should be about freedom.

So, I stopped going to ecstatic dances. “Be yourself” doesn’t apply to nudists. They all say that the dances are a “judgement free space”, but if I were really myself, harsh judgements would immediately befall me.

I wish everyone would look at the words and phrases used to describe ecstatic dance and realize what they really mean and act accordingly.